Remember Me
by ReadingIsForNerds
Summary: Jace finally meets the girl of his dreams. She is funny and beautiful and is everything he never knew he wanted. There is only one problem though; she doesn't remember him. Every night when she goes to sleep, her memories of the previous day are erased because of a horrible accident she was in. Will he be able to get her to fall in love with him every day? Clace/Full summary inside
1. Chapter 1

**The movie _50 First Dates_ inspired this fanfic for me. Clary had a traumatic brain injury which prohibits her from remembering anything after her accident. Jace meets her one day and they hit it off wonderfully and he is enraptured by her. They make plans for the next day, all the while, Jace doesn't know** **about her memory problem, and when he shows up, she has no memory of him. This is a story of how he has to get her to fall in love with him every day and the struggles they face with her family and his and the jealousy of her best friend.**

 **There will be small differences in this story from the movie though. I hope that you enjoy reading this!**

* * *

"Hurry up Simon!" Clary yells out of the window of the cab. She watches as Simon juggles the new Manga comic that he bought yesterday and a large bad that he has swung over one shoulder. The new comic came out yesterday and he had picked them up and promised that they would read it together. "This cab is costing me a fortune!"

Simon reaches the cab then and Clary scoots all of the way over in the back seat to make room for him. The moment he shuts the door, the cab takes off. "Why did you get a cab?" Simon asks as he adjusts the comic and backpack to sit comfortably in his lap.

"I don't know. I just felt like it." she replies with a shrug. "You had better not have read any of that." Clary says as she points to the Manga in his lap. "I want to be surprised and if you have already read it, your facial expressions will ruin it. Just like that one time."

Simon rolls his eyes and then looks over at her. "You are never going to let that go, are you?"

"Nope. I can read you like the back of my hand. Your face always gives you away."

The cab driver suddenly swerves heavily to the right and curses in some foreign language as his hand flies up to shoot a bird at the person who pulled out in front of him. "Jeez." Simon says with wide eyes. "I thought that guy was going to hit us."

"Nah." Clary says easily as she leans back against the seat and looks out of the window. "You are probably more likely to be hit by a car crossing the street on foot in New York."

"Maybe." Simon replies. It is quiet for a couple of minutes as Clary scrolls through her social media on her phone and then she holds it up to Simon's face. "Kirk and Eric are at Java Jones. Do you still want to go?" Simon looks down at her phone and sees a picture of the two boys with stupid smiles on their faces as they point to a girl's butt right behind them and give each other high fives with their other hands.

"No. Eric is still mad at me for saying his girlfriend, Jayda, sounded like a mouse. Her voice is so squeaky."

Clary lets out a loud laugh. "That's because he knows it's true." she says when her laughing quiets. Clary leans forward and hits the partition with the palm of her hand. "Hey!" she shouts, gaining the driver's attention. "Change of plans. Take us to Fort Greene Park."

The driver mutters something under his breath and then suddenly swerves to the left to take the next corner. Clary is thrown against Simon and as he raises his arms to catch her, she looks out of his window and sees a car coming right for them. "Simon!" she yells loudly as the oncoming car crashes into them. Clary is thrown across the cab and hits her head, hard, against the pillar in between the front and back car doors. The grinding of metal against metal and muffled grunts and screams are the last thing that Clary hears just before everything goes dark.

* * *

 _One week later..._

"Ms. Fairchild?" Jocelyn turns around to the sound of her name being called. She sees the neurosurgeon that performed Clary's brain surgery standing in the door of her hospital room. "Can I speak with you for a moment?" he asks softly after seeing that Clary is asleep.

Jocelyn leans down and brings Clary's hand that she has been holding for the past hour to her lips and kisses it before letting go and following the doctor out of the room. She pulls the door shut behind her and crosses her arms across her chest. "What is it?" she asks him. She can see how serious he is and it worries her.

He swallows roughly and fidgets a little with the papers he is holding. "The results from the MRI came back...and they aren't what we hoped for." he says somberly.

A rush of panic runs through Jocelyn and she furrows her brows at the doctor. "What is that supposed to mean?" she asks in a demanding tone. "You said that the surgery went beautifully. That it was a success."

"It did and it was." he says raising one hand in a calming manor. "But the fact that Clary has woken up two days in a row and not remembered anything from the day before, it concerned us. That is why we took her for an MRI this morning." Jocelyn takes a deep and calming breath as he continues. "We discussed that memory loss could be a problem because of where she hit her head. And after looking at the film from the scan, I am afraid that that possibility has become a reality. It will take a few more days to confirm what I suspect but I am ninety percent sure that her brain after such a traumatic blow, has lost the ability to turn short term memories into long term ones when she goes to sleep at night. It's like her brain reboots everyday and loses all of the information from the previous day."

"No." Jocelyn says firmly as tears begin to sting behind her eyes. "That can't be what's happening. There has to be something else...some sort of other explanation."

"What's going on?" she hears a familiar voice say. She turns around to see that Simon has wheeled himself to her room for his daily visit with Clary. His femur and a few ribs are broken from the accident and he has to get around in a wheelchair for the time being.

Jocelyn reaches up to her face as the first tear escapes her eyes and wipes it away. "Simon..." she starts to say but can't seem to get anything else out. She sucks in a hiccuping breath as a small sob breaks out of her lips.

His face turns deadly serious as he looks over to the surgeon. "Tell me what's going on." he demands just as Jocelyn turns and rushes back into her daughter's room.

* * *

 _Exactly one year later..._

Jace Herondale is a man that has always gotten everything he ever wanted. His father was a successful real estate developer and was grooming him to take over the business one day. He was incredibly handsome and had the sex life that most men his age only dreamed about. Being a rich and handsome twenty year old meant that he was definitely living the good life.

The only problem was, he didn't want to take over his father's business. Jace wanted to travel the world photograph every inch of it. He has always been drawn to everything beautiful since he was a little boy. He loved going to the park with his mother and look at the flowers and he would always wake up early to see how each sunrise looked different from the one the day before. There were so many beautiful places on earth and he didn't want to waste his life by not seeing them and trying his best to capture their beauty with his camera.

That is why when he walked into a quaint coffee shop on a corner in Brooklyn, the first thing he noticed was the beautiful red head in the corner of the room. Her hair was falling around her face and framing it perfectly as she held some sort of comic in her hands. Her small hand reached up slowly and tucked one side of her hair behind her ear and then a smile tipped up one corner of her mouth as if she just read something entertaining. Jace had never seen someone with such bright green eyes as hers and his fingers started to twitch, wishing that he had brought his camera. He wanted to capture the enraptured look on her face as she read and the way her legs were pulled up in front of her. She looked so...

"Excuse me?" a feminine voice calls out. Jace is pulled from his daze and looks in front of him to see the brown headed barista looking expectantly at him. "Are you going to order something?"

Jace clears his throat and takes one last glance over at the girl before stepping up to the counter. His eyes dart down to the woman's name tag to see that it reads 'Maia' and he looks back up to her and offers her his signature smirk that makes women weak in the knees. "Sorry, Maia. I was lost in thought for a moment."

Maia smiles up at him and gives a tiny chuckle as she tucks some of her curly hair behind her ears. "That's okay." she says tells him and then regains her composure after shyly looking to the ground. "What can I get for you?"

"Just a medium mocha cappuccino." he tells her and she quickly turns to make it. He swipes his card and pays for it and Maia hands him his drink. "Thanks." he tells her and then looks back over to the red head after glancing down at his watch. He is already late to take a look at the progress on a restoration that he is overseeing but he decides to go and sit next to her anyway. He doesn't want to risk not seeing her again even though he will be on this side of town for probably another two months working.

He walks over to her, his eyes never leaving her face. Jace sits down at the table in front of the plush brown couch she is curled up on and sets down his drink and faces her. She still hasn't looked up from that comic she is reading. He then tries to gain her attention by letting out a loud cough. After practically choking himself, her eyes never leave the pages she is reading.

He furrows his brows in frustration. Usually girls seemed to have a radar for him. Their heads would immediately snap up and look at him as he approached but he was surely not getting that reaction from her. He then tries to take another approach. He picks up his phone and looks down at it and pretends to see something funny. He lets out a loud laugh that makes most of the people in the coffee shop turn to look at him. But not her.

Jace then laughs again, a little louder this time, but she still doesn't look up from than damn comic. What the hell could be so interesting about that comic?

He then decides to call his best friend Alec. Maybe having a slightly loud conversation right in front of her will work. Five minutes later when she doesn't budge, even though he managed to keep his very un-talkative friend on the phone and talk about soccer, which they both hate, he starts to question his methods. Surely she should have noticed him by now.

He takes a deep breath and then waves his hand over to Maia to signal that he wants a refill and she gives him a nod. She hurries over with a fresh cup and he thanks her and gives her a tip before she turns and leaves. Jace looks at the red head again and furrows his brows as he tries to think of a way to get her to notice him. Usually, he would just approach a woman if he was interested, but she just looks so beautiful with the way her face looks with how interested she is in what she is reading. He doesn't think that she would appreciate being interrupted to be hit on. So, his strategy is still to try to get her to notice him and then he can make eye contact and start a conversation.

He takes a slow sip of his cappuccino as he studies her. An idea comes to mind and he sets his cup down. Jace looks away from the table and his elbow comes out like he is trying to reach for something in his pocket and he knocks over his drink. "Oh crap." he says loudly as the liquid starts to splash onto the table top and then the floor. He immediately stands up, pushing the chair he was sitting in away and screeching it against the floor, and grabs some napkins from a table next to him and starts to try and soak up the mess.

"Maia!" he calls out. When she looks over at him and sees the mess, she sighs heavily and grabs the mop and makes her way over to him. "I'm so sorry, Maia." he tells her as he scoots around the table. He glances at the girl and sees that she _still_ hasn't looked up. He curses himself and then pushes the excess liquid off of the table with his napkin filled hand. "I don't know what happened. I guess I was just not paying attention."

"I'm sure that's what it was." she says sarcastically with a glance in the red head's direction and he swears he hears a tiny laugh come from the direction of the girl. He jerks his head over to her and he is almost sure that he sees her wipe a smile off of her lips the moment his eyes landed on her. But by the time he gets a good look at her, he is sure he is mistaken. Her eyes are still completely trained on that damn comic.

Maia finishes cleaning up the mess as Jace apologizes again and asks for another drink. He plops back down in his seat and purses his lips. He is starting to run out of ideas. Maia brings over his new drink and he hands her a large tip as she starts to walk away.

"Hey, Maia?" Jace's head snaps up to the sound of the red heads feminine voice. It sounds like fucking wind chimes. "Can you bring me another coffee?"

"Black?" Maia asks with a smile. The red head smiles back and then says, "Like my soul." lowly and then the two of them share a small laugh and Maia walks away. How could the barista get her attention but he couldn't? They clearly were familiar with each other. Before he can attempt to make eye contact with her, she looks back down at her comic and regains that engrossed look on her face.

Dammit. That's it. He has no more ideas.

He looks down at his watch again and then looks back up at her. He really should be going. If the red head and the barista are on a first name basis and have their own inside jokes, then she surely comes here a lot. Maybe he can keep coming back until he sees her again. Surely she can't be reading every time she comes here.

He takes a deep breath and then grabs his coffee and looks at her one last time before he starts to stand. He runs a hand through his hair and just as he is turning to walk away, he hears her voice again. "Giving up so easily?" she says with her tone playful and curious.

He snaps his head back around to see her smiling up at him with a mischievous smile on her lips. It lights up her face beautifully and his breath catches a little in his throat. "Excuse me?" he says in a questioning tone.

"After all of the effort you put in to get my attention, you are just going to walk away?" she asks him as she furrows her brows slightly with a small smile still on her lips.

"I...uh..." Jace stammers. He has never had trouble knowing exactly what to say to a woman until now. He feels like a fumbling idiot under the heavy gaze of her beautiful green eyes. "I..."

"You did all of that and you didn't plan out what you were going to say to me?" she asks him questioningly again and then her smile gets bigger when he still says nothing.

Jace furrows his brows at her and narrows his eyes playfully at her. He thinks he has successfully found his tongue after a few more seconds so he tries to speak again. "You knew I was trying to get your attention the whole time?" he asks her. She lets out a tiny laugh and gives him a small nod. "I can't believe it." Jace says with a scoff and a laugh. "I thought I was losing my touch. I have never tried so hard to get anyone's attention in my life."

He freezes for a fraction of a second when he admits that to her but she seems to find it charming. Her smile gets wider and a slight blush tints her cheeks. "I couldn't let you off the hook so easily. I wanted to make you work for it." she says and he can't help but smile widely at her. She then shrugs her shoulders nonchalantly and tips her head to the side just a little as she says, "But...if you just wanted to give up..."

"No. No." Jace says hurriedly. "I've got time." He then steps closer to her and stretches out his hand. She places her feet on the ground from where they were tucked against her on the couch and holds out her hand for him. "I'm Jace." he says with a smile and her face lights up as they quickly shake hands.

"I'm Clary." she replies and motions to the spot next to her on the couch. "Why don't you sit here?" she says and he doesn't hesitate for one second before taking her up on her offer.

* * *

 _Tell me what you think! I will put up two new chapters in the next weeek if the response is good._


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks so much for the awesome response! It was more than what I was expecting and I greatly appreciate it. I really hope I don't let ya'll down with this story and I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

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Jace sits down next to Clary and smiles warmly at her. He looks down in her lap at the comic that she was so studiously reading just moments ago and nods to it as he says, "I thought comics were just for nerds with pimples and glasses."

She rolls her eyes with an amused smile on her face. "That's only something popular pretty boys like yourself say."

"So you think I'm pretty?" Jace asks with one brow raised.

"Probably not as pretty as you think you are." she replies in a playfully snarky tone. A smile slowly spreads across his mouth at her answer. She's witty. He likes that. It's so boring when women are constantly agreeable; which happens a lot with him. They always want to make it seem like they have stuff in common with him but he gets the feeling that she won't do that for him.

He lets out a little chuckle and enjoys the smile that turns her lips up just a little. "But seriously, you looked so engrossed in it. What's it about?"

"It's just that I have been waiting to find out what happens with my favorite characters for two months. This is actually the second time I've read it since I got here this morning."

"That good, huh?" Jace asks as he looks back down at it. He never understood why someone above the age of ten would want to read a comic.

"It is." she says very surely. "But usually my friend comes with me to read it. He had some kind of family emergency though and had to cancel."

Jace notices when she says 'him' and makes a mental note for later inquiry. He doesn't want to get in the middle of some lovers tryst if this guy is like a friend with benefits. "Well, I guess that is good for me though. I would have been less hesitant to speak to you. Usually girls guy friends are huge cock blocks."

Clary immediately bursts into laughter and Jace is momentarily mesmerized by the way her laughter lights her face up. She is absolutely stunning. "I can't believe you just said that!" Clary spits out when her laughing quiets.

"It's true." Jace says defensively. "You can't honestly tell me that whoever this guy friend of yours is has never gotten in the way of someone trying to get your number."

Clary raises her hand to her chin and looks off in the distance for a moment as she makes a show of thinking hard. "Now that you think of it, Simon is kind of a cock block. Every time a guy hits on me, he scares him away and then says he was just trying to do me a favor because he didn't think I was interested in the guy. That's probably why I have only ever had one boyfriend since me and Simon are always together. He's like my brother."

Jace's brows raise in surprise at her words. "You have only ever had one boyfriend?" he asks her. Surely that can't be true with how beautiful she is.

"Yeah." she says as Maia drops off her coffee. She reaches for it as she says, "It only lasted like a month and Simon was smug when we broke up. He said he knew it would happen all along."

"It sounds like this Simon guy might have the hots for you." Jace says knowing this to be true. Her friend Simon, whether she knows it or not, likes her. He knows this even with what little she has said about him. If you are a guy, you don't invest all of your free time into your best friend, who is a really hot woman, just because she is your best friend. He would be out chasing other women and trying to get laid with his guy friends if he didn't like her as more that a friend.

She lets out another little laugh as she says, "No way. We're like siblings." She then sets her coffee back down and then looks back to Jace. "But enough about that. What do you do for a living, Jace? I can't tell by what you are wearing."

Jace looks down at his attire and nods his head in agreement. He is wearing dark wash jeans with a button up white shirt and a navy blazer with brown heavy construction site boots that are meant to look like some sort of dress shoes. "I'm a real estate developer." Jace replies with a smile. "I buy old buildings and restore them or renovate them and then sell them for a profit."

"That sounds amazing." she says and her eyes light up a little. "I'll bet picking out the finishes are fun. Do you keep some of the old character of the buildings?"

"I do. I think old architecture is beautiful and where ever I can keep it, I do." Jace answers easily. "There is so much beauty in the world, man made and natural beauty, that I try to preserve as much as I can of the old designs. What about you? What do you do?"

"I study art at NYU." she says taking Jace by surprise. "I have always had talent for drawing and painting that I inherited from my mother. I want to one day have my own art gallery where local up and coming artists can come hang their pieces."

"Is that part of the reason you like graphic novels?" he asks her as he nods to the comic in her lap. "The art?"

She looks back up at him, looking pleasantly surprised. "Yes. That is part of it. I am surprised you picked up on that. Most people just assume that I just like it for the story line since that is what they would be in it for. Some of the art is actually breathtaking. The way they can bring a certain tiny emotion to life with the flick of a pen and a strategically placed wrinkle in the character's forehead."

"I know what you mean." Jace says in reply with a soft smile. "When I take someone's picture, I like them to be one hundred percent authentic. None of those fake plastered on smiles that you see in sefies that flood your social media."

Clary, once again, looks pleasantly surprised. "You take pictures?" she asks curiously as she raises her brows in surprise.

Jace lets out a short and dry laugh. "Don't act so surprised." he says playfully. "I actually always wanted to be a professional photographer. I wish I could travel the world and capture all of it's beauty one frame at a time. I want to get lost in some tiny country that I can't pronounce the name of and just decide to stay there for a while and live like the locals there."

Clary looks absolutely enraptured by what Jace is saying. So much so, that she has subconsciously started to lean towards him. "I have always wanted to do that since I was a little boy." Jace all of a sudden looks down and at the drink in his hand and then puts one of his tiny and forced smiles on his face. "But I guess adulthood and reality caught up with me and now I have a 'real job' as my father always wanted."

"Well that sounds horrible." Clary says.

Jace looks back at her with nothing but surprise and amusement and after a few seconds, he lets out a loud but short laugh. "That isn't the reaction I usually get. Most people tell me that 'it's better this way' that I have a stable job and I am their version of settled."

Jace watches Clary as her eyes suddenly change. They go from someone who was listening to the eyes of someone who just got an idea. The next thing Jace knows, Clary gets a knowing smirk on her face and it makes him sit up a little as he wonders what is about to happen. Because the way she is looking at him, something is definitely about to happen. Just as he is about to ask what she is thinking, Clary hurriedly shoves her comic in her messenger bag and then is swiftly standing up and swinging the bag over her shoulder. She then reaches down and takes Jace's coffee out of his hand and sets it on the table in front of him and then she is grabbing his hand and pulling him up from the plush brown couch.

"What is going on?" Jace asks while raising one eyebrow inquisitively and a small smile tugs on his lips.

"We are going to go capture the beauty of the city today. You with your camera and me with my sketchpad." Clary says and then pats her messenger bag to indicate that she has a sketchpad tucked inside.

"But I have work..." Jace says and Clary cuts him off.

"Call in sick. I think your work will survive a day without you." Clary tells him this in a way that leaves no room for argument, and Jace for some reason, finds that to be very attractive. "Now come on." Clary says pulling him out of the coffee shop by their interlocked hands. Just as they are walking out of the door, Jace hears Maia call her name sounding a little worried but she doesn't hear.

"My truck is this way." Jace tells her and points to his left. "I always keep my camera bag there."

"I guess that means you are driving." she says with a contagious smile that spreads to him. "I don't exactly have a lot of money for a cabs. I do have a subway pass though."

"There is no need for that." Jace says as he pulls his keys out of his pocket and holds them up for her to see. That is when he notices that she is still holding his hand and then he is pulling her along with it. When she gets up next to him, she deftly removes her hand from his and starts to dig in her bag.

"I just have to text my friend and tell him that I will be busy all day." she explains as she produces a phone. "We are supposed to meet for lunch but I guess my plans have changed." She looks up at him with an easy smile and he can't help but let his face show her just how taken he is with her. Every muscle in his face is pulled up with and ear splitting grin. So far, she isn't like anyone else he has ever met. She doesn't seem to let anything hold her back from what she wants to do. Her eyes hold a wildness to them that Jace gets completely sucked into every time she looks at him. Her bright red hair reflects that about her personality beautifully. The way it seems untamed and perfectly wavy at the same time while her whole body emits a carefree attitude that holds a promise of amazing things and experiences he can expect from the day to come.

Without breaking eye contact with her, he reaches into his pants pockets and pulls out his phone. He then reluctantly breaks eye contact with her and finds the number he is looking for and hits the call button. After a few rings, he can hear his project manager, Jordan, pick up. There are saws running in the background and men shouting and Jace is suddenly relieved beyond belief that he isn't there. "Hey Jordan. I'm not going to make it in today. I'm not feeling too good."

The fact that Jace have never once called in sick is why Jordan then responds the way he does. "Is everything okay man? Do I need to call your father?"

"God no." Jace says hurriedly. "I just don't feel that great. I am sure I will be fine by tomorrow so I am going to let you handle everything today."

"Alright. Get better." Jordan says and then the line goes dead as they reach his truck with the words 'Herondale Construction and Development' written on the door. He then opens the passenger door for Clary and she hops in just as her phone pings. She looks down at the screen and then surprises him by turning her phone off completely. She looks back over to him and shrugs when he looks at her questioningly. "How can we both escape from our lives for a day when we are getting constant reminders of it by our phones?"

At her words, Jace looks down at his phone and feels a small rush of euphoria rush through him as he powers down his phone. She sees this and smiles hugely at him. He then shuts the door and practically jogs over to the drivers side. The idea of forgetting everything else and just taking pictures all day is something that he hasn't done in literally years. His work schedule never permitted it.

When he reaches his door, he swings it open and jumps up into the truck and shuts the door behind him. He then shrugs off his blazer and tosses it onto the back seat. Jace reaches down and grabs his shirt and then pulls his white button up out of his pants where it was tucked in and runs a hand through his perfectly styled hair leaving a carefully rumpled look in it's wake.

"You look like a kid on Christmas morning." Clary suddenly says in the silence of his truck.

He immediately looks over to her and sees that she has been watching him with those intense eyes of hers and says, "That's because I feel like one. I haven't done anything like this in years."

"Well then you are well overdo." she replies and smiles at him. "Where are we going first?" Jace asks her.

"Just drive until either one of us sees something we like. How does that sound?"

"That sounds perfect." Jace says back to her as their eyes lock together. Jace fumbles with his keys for a second before sticking them in the ignition blindly and turning over the engine. He then regrettably breaks eye contact with her as he then focuses on driving and pulls out into the traffic feeling like he can breath for the first time in months.

* * *

 _Sorry this was a short chapter but this was the only logical place to stop it in my mind. The next chapter will definitely be longer because I want to take my time with their day together. I promise._

 _Like always, don't forget to follow and review. Your feedback is always welcome!_


	3. Chapter 3

Before Jace knew it, he found himself at Fort Greene Park. "How about here?" he asks Clary. "There are beautiful old buildings surrounding the park and lots of greenery blooming because it's spring."

"This is a great first stop." she replies as she unbuckles her seat belt and hops down and out of his truck as he pulls up to a curb. She digs in her bag for a second while Jace is putting together his camera equipment and she pulls out a hair tie. He stops what he is doing and watches as she gathers all of her hair together and pulls it on top of her head and winds it into a bun. This is the first time he gets to see her neck which is somehow the most beautiful neck he has ever seen. Which is weird because he has never paid any attention to women's necks before, but something about hers is graceful and feminine and soft.

When she is done, she digs in her bag again and quickly checks to make sure she has a sketchbook and a few pencils before she steps away from the door and shuts it leaving him behind in his truck. He looks down at his equipment and finishes quickly attaching the right lens before swinging his camera bag over his shoulder. By the time he is over to where she is waiting on the sidewalk, she is grabbing his hand again and pulling him behind her.

"There is this great spot just over here." she tells him. "You get a good vantage point of the whole park and some of the brownstones just on the other side of the it. It's the perfect place to start."

Jace smiles at her taking complete charge and replies with, "Yes ma'am." and a salute.

Clary then laughs quickly and looks back to where she is going. After a short walk, he starts to see where she is headed to just up ahead. There is lighthouse looking structure that sits on top of a long row of numerous steps. He is sure that they are likely to get a good view from there.

Clary then raises her hand and points to an area off to the side. "I like to go there and sit under the trees when I come here. People don't notice you easily there. I get to sketch the park and them in their most unguarded state. They come here to relax and play with their kids or dog and you can just see the stress of their everyday lives melting off of them the longer they are here."

Jace, who has been watching her as she talked, is caught up by the way she moves her hands while she speaks. It's like she is trying to convey what she is saying through her hands and body language and she looks even more beautiful when she is talking about sketching. The way she opens herself up, without knowing she is doing it, and shows him herself through the ungaurded look in her eyes has him completely enraptured.

"Do you come here often? You said this is your favorite spot." he asks her and she bursts out laughing, taking him by surprise. They get to the grass then and she is still pulling him further under the canopy of the trees as her laughing quiets. "What?" he asks sounding confused.

"You just asked me if I come here often." she tells him with another small chuckle. "That has to be one of the worst and oldest pick up lines in the world."

Jace then starts to laugh at himself as he realizes she is right. He did ask her that. "Wow." he says after he stops laughing. "I really am losing my touch. I am reverting back to cheesy pick up lines that I haven't used since I was twelve."

She finally stops under one particular tree and lets go of his hand, much to his disappointment, and she cranes her neck to look up at him. "Well, just to let you know, twelve year old me wouldn't have been impressed with that horrible one liner. I was way too smart for that."

"I believe it." Jace tells her with a smile. She then reaches around her body and lifts the strap of her army green messenger bag over her head and then plops down onto the ground. She pulls out her sketch pad and then looks back up to Jace who is just standing there and watching her. "You know, to take pictures, you have to actually pull out your camera." she says as she looks pointedly down to his camera bag. He shakes his head and snaps out of the thoughts he was having about what it would be like to kiss her.

"You're right." he says sounding a little embarrassed.

Jace sets his bag down next to Clary and starts to pull out his camera. She turns and watches him as he pulls out the memory card he has in it and puts another, bigger one in. She doesn't take her eyes off of what he is doing until he looks over at her. She then looks up to him and he swears he sees a slight blush creep up on her cheeks. "You have nice hands." she tells him. "They look like artists hands. You have long pianists fingers."

He lets out a little chuckle as he smiles at her. "I actually play the piano. My mother taught me. She was a music teacher before she married my dad."

She looks up at him with her intense eyes and seems to study him for a moment. Her brows furrow slightly with thought as she tilts her head ever so slightly to the side as she looks at him. After about ten seconds, he starts to feel like he is naked and she is looking right through him. He then actually starts to feel blood rush to his cheeks and is taken back because she is causing him to blush. He has never, not once in his life, blushed. "You aren't at all what I expected you to be like." she finally says after an intense period of study.

"What did you expect?" he asks her as he escapes her gaze and looks down to turn on his camera.

"I don't know." she says wistfully. "I just know that I didn't expect...someone who isn't...shallow. No offense."

Jace lets out a small laugh and looks back up to her with an amused grin. "You just thought that I would be a pretty face and have no substance."

She then shrugs her shoulders and purses her lips briefly before saying, "Pretty much." and then smiles playfully at him. He can't help the smile that then spreads across his face at her as he stands up. After a few seconds, she finally releases him and looks down to her sketchpad and twirls a pencil in her hand as she looks up and scans the park. Jace watches her for a minute from beside her as her eyes search for something that catches her interest to draw and brings his camera down to her level.

A few renegade strands of her bright hair has escaped from the bun she tucked it into and are blowing lightly in the spring wind of late April. Her legs are pulled slightly up in front of her where her sketchpad is propped up on and the soft yellow button up that she is wearing is hanging loosely off of her shoulders revealing the tight green band tank top underneath. The more she moves, the more it slides down her arms showing a small amount of her milky skin. The sun breaks through the tree above them then and lights up her hair and part of her face and his breath catches in his throat for a moment. Before he knows what he is doing, he is raising his camera up and snaps a few pictures of her. She is so engrossed in her search for something to draw that she doesn't hear the rapid snapping of the shutter of the camera as it candidly captures her.

Jace pulls the camera down and looks at the pictures he just took and smiles hugely when he sees that he caught the look on her face perfectly as her eyes scanned the park. He already knows that it will be one of his most favorite pictures of all time. The sunlight illuminates her hair and eyes to a more vibrant color and her skin looks warm and soft as it heats up under the sun. You can see the blank pad in front of her and the pencil in her hand that she is twirling as her other hand rests on the grass behind her, propping herself up slightly. It captures her effortless beauty perfectly. He smiles again as he looks at the picture one more time and then stands up looking for his next target.

An hour passes as the two of them sketch and take pictures. Jace had taken a spot on the ground about eight feet away from Clary and had been studious taking pictures of two elderly men playing chess and the three elderly women that surrounded them. Each one of their faces told a different story and each frame of the camera caught a slightly different emotion than the one before. When he was satisfied that he had captured everything that he would be able to from them, he hiked up a little way up the hill next to the massive set of stairs that lead up to the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument to take some pictures of people down below playing with their kids while Clary is in the forefront sketching away. She was driving him insane because she wouldn't let him see what she was drawing. After about five minutes of searching, she had started to draw saying that she found the perfect moment to capture and refused to let him see.

Another twenty minutes pass when Clary suddenly stands up while Jace cleans one of his lenses and she looks to him. "I'm done for now if you are. We can go and find somewhere else."

"I was just about to make that very suggestion." he tells her as he carefully places his camera back in his bag. She gives him a warm smile as he zips up his bag and tosses the strap over his shoulder and stands up. He holds out his hand down to her and she gladly takes it and he helps pull her up. She brushes the grass off of her pants and then bends over to pick up her bag and puts the strap across her body.

They both then start to head back towards where they came into the park and back to his truck. "You were taking pictures of the old men playing chess." Clary says making it sound more like a question than a statement.

"The elderly's faces tell such rich stories." he responds as he looks at her before looking up and ahead of them as he talks. "I always end up wondering what their life has been like. What stories they could tell me and who they've met throughout their life. If someone has a lot of crows feet, I always imagine them as having laughed a lot and that crinkled up their face more and gave them their crows feet. If they have a deep line in between their eyebrows, I imagine them having spent most of their lives thinking and worrying."

Jace looks back down at Clary who is listening very intently and makes eye contact with her as he talks. "Each line on their face tells a different story in my eyes." A small smile then pulls up his lips as he says, "My grandmother had tons of crows feet and a deep line between her eyes. She was a tough and stern woman but she could also tell a dirty joke like a professional."

Clary smiles and lets out a breathy laugh and Jace starts to think that he could never get enough of her cute little laugh and the way her eyes light up when she smiles. "She sounds like my kind of lady." she tells him.

"She was hands down, my favorite person on the entire planet." Jace says as he looks back ahead of him. It still hurts to talk about her in the past tense. Stage four cancer came knocking at her door and she was gone only a month later. To say that he wasn't prepared for that would be an understatement.

"You miss her a lot." Clary says softly and he looks back down at her. This is where people usually look at him with pity in their eyes, but not Clary. He only sees the conclusion that he misses her in her eyes and the kindness behind it. He doesn't want pity because he got twenty long years with her and he was a better man because of it.

"I do." he admits with a soft and wistful smile. He reaches out and grabs her hand and watches as she smiles back up at him. They then walk the rest of the way, pointing out things here and there to one another. Only a few short minutes go by before they get back to his truck and he is opening the door for her and helping her in.

Jace pulls away from the curb and just starts to drive aimlessly. They fall into conversation as he drives and she tells him about how she never knew her father but her mother more than made up for his absence. She told him about her 'uncle' Luke that her mother refused to admit that she was madly in love with and told him how she would spend everyday after school reading book after book in his book store. This excited Jace to no end because he too was a great book lover. He always grew tired of women who wouldn't get a joke he would tell or quote a line that would come from a famous book. She seemed to be an intellectual match for him and he found that the more she talked, the more beautiful she got. In his experience, the opposite would always happen when he would have a conversation with a pretty woman. After talking with her for so long, he was sure that he would never be able to go back to the unintelligent blondes that he used to want who used their looks to get by instead of their brains.

"Stop! Stop!" Clary suddenly shouts and Jace slams on the brakes. He hears the car behind him screech to a stop and then the familiar blare of a car horn blasting from it accompanied by a string of obscenities.

"What is it?" he asks looking around for any type of possible danger. The way she was yelling made it sound like she was being shot at.

"That building up there!" Clary raises her hand and points to beautiful cathedral looking building just up ahead and then she is unbuckling her seat belt. "I can't believe you found it." she exclaims as she point to a spot to park. He takes his foot off of the brake and pulls over to park, but before he can put his truck in park, she is grabbing her bag and practically jumping out of his truck.

He grabs his camera bag and quickly follows her. He sees her upturned face as she cranes her neck up to look at the early eighteen hundreds masterpiece in front of them. "I remember walking by this place with Luke one day when I was a little girl." she starts to explain. "I made him stop so I could touch the grey stone of it. He told me it was once used as a courthouse and then they turned it into a museum but it closed just a week before I saw it. It is one of my most favorite memories with him. He let me stay here for hours and found a small piece of paper and asked a stranger for something to write with. I sketched it the best I could, which wasn't very good, while Luke read a book. I never knew where it was and I never saw it again and I eventually forgot about it. Until now. When I saw it again."

She looks over to him, finally tearing her eyes away from the building, and she has one of the most radiant smiles he has ever seen on her face. "You found it." she tells him and he smiles back at her.

"I was just driving aimlessly, but I will take credit for it if you are willing to give it to me." he says in a playful tone and they both smile at one another. She looks back to the building and sees the heavy lock on the doors. "I just wish that I had been able to see inside of it. Luke said there was the most beautiful mural on the ceiling when you walked in of angels battling demons for possession of the earth."

"Well I think we just found our second location for the day." Jace says with a matter of fact tone and another smile warms up her face.

She opens her bag and flips past her first sketch from the park and brings her pencil to the paper and immediately begins to draw. He watches her as her eyes narrow slightly with concentration as they dart back and forth between the building and the paper. She tucks part of her bottom lip under her top row of teeth and bites down lightly as she studies a particular part of the front entrance where the steps meet the two sets of double doors and roses on a vine are carved expertly into the stone. "Do you see the detail in the leaves on the vines?" she says and points to the doors, never looking away from them. "There is so much detail in them. Whoever carved those there, was an amazing artist. To be able to have a steady enough hand to chisel it in with such precision with a tiny little hammer...I could never do that."

She returns to her drawing as Jace pulls out his camera. For the second time today, he crouches down beside her where she is leaning against someone's car as if she owns it, and he brings his camera up to catch her from slightly below. Once again, she is so completely entranced in her sketching to notice him taking pictures of her, which is the way he likes it. He wants to capture this moment and the look of excitement and concentration on her face without her knowing. People, no matter how hard they try, never look one hundred percent themselves when they are aware that someone is taking their picture.

After a while, he turns his camera on the building and climbs up the stairs and walks around the structure, snapping picture after picture of the small details that make it beautiful. He doesn't know how long he is in the small overgrown grassy area to the side of it when he hears someone else's soft footsteps approaching. He looks up from behind his camera and sees that Clary has taken off her yellow button up that was hanging on her shoulders and tied it around her waist. She smiles softly at him as she high steps her way through the tall grass and comes to stand beside him.

"Thank you for this." Jace suddenly says without thinking. "I really needed today. I can't remember the last time I took a day and did anything like this. It was probably at least three years ago and I had forgotten just how much I love it."

Clary returns the warm smile he is giving her and then looks down and away from him when their eyes meet for a few seconds too long. "I'm glad that I could help." she says and then looks back up to him. She then holds out her hand for him to take and then nods back to the front of the building. "Come on. Let's get some lunch. I'm starving."

His returning smile is almost blinding as he takes her hand and lets her pull him around front. The feel of her small hand in his and the way it seems to fit perfectly with his own is something that he is sure he never wants to forget. In fact, he wants to make sure that he never will. He is also sure that he never wants this day to end. A beautiful and smart woman has chosen him to spend her day with and he couldn't feel any luckier because of it.

"Do you know of anywhere around here to eat?" Clary asks him as they step back out onto the sidewalk.

He looks around and realizes that he isn't that familiar with this part of Brooklyn. They are tucked back on a small street that connects two other small streets. "I don't think so." he tells her as he looks back down at her. "I did see a small diner on the street before this one. Do you want to just head there?"

"That sounds fine." she tells him and then walks over to his truck. They toss in their bags and he locks the door and grabs her hand again as they begin to walk.

He enjoys the feel of her hand in his as he smooths his thumb over the skin on the back of her hand. When he looks down to her again, she seems to sense it and looks back up at him. "Why do you keep looking at me?"

"Because you are so beautiful." he tells her with a warm smile.

She blushes lightly and then tries to blow it off. "You don't have to lay it on so thick, you know." she tells him as she looks back straight ahead.

"I'm not." he tells her. "If there is one thing that you should know about me, it is that I am not a liar. If you ask me what I am thinking, I am going to tell you. And right now, I am thinking about how I like the way the sun lights up your hair. In fact..." he says and then lets go of her hand and brings it to her tightly wrapped bun. His fingers find the hair tie that is holding her hair up and gives it a tug, releasing her long locks. She looks up at him with an amused smile as she runs her hand through her long hair a few times, working out the tangles, and pulls it over to one side. "Much better." he tells her and she rolls her eyes before she looks back ahead of them.

They turn the corner then and see the diner up ahead. The name 'Taki's' is in red, printed on the front window. When they get to the door and he opens it for her, the most wonderfully delicious smell hits them in the face. They simultaneously take deep breaths trying to pull in as much of the delicious smell they can. "It smells amazing in here." she says as she looks back up to him. He glances at a sign that says to seat themselves and he leads her to a booth in the back of the diner. She slides in on one side while he sits on the other. She picks up one of the menus that are sitting on the table and flips it open just as the waitress shows up.

"Welcome to Taki's. What can I get you to drink?" the older woman says without looking up from her notepad. She looks like she has had a rough life but her laugh lines indicate that she has had a lot of fun too. Her hair is dyed blonde to obviously cover up her graying hair and is tied up into sloppy french twist at the nape of her neck. She is wearing way too much makeup for the day time and enough perfume to choke you. I nod to Clary and she orders a water and a strawberry milkshake. The waitress finally looks up from her pad and her eyes land on Jace. She raises her hand and lowers her reading glasses to get a better look at him and smirks. "And what can I get for you, sugar lips?" she asks him with a brusque voice that tells of her smoking too many cigarettes.

"I'll have the same." he tells her and she winks at him before turning and sashaying away. When she is out of earshot, Clary leans forward over the table a little and lets out some amused laughter. "That old lady is a cougar and she has the hots for you. I can't believe she called you sugar lips."

He leans theatrically back in the booth and places his hands behind his head as he says, "What can I say? I do have very tasty lips. She has a very good eye to notice something like that."

"It's good to see that you don't suffer from low self esteem." Clary says as she leans back in her seat.

"Fortunately, I have never had that problem." he tells her back playfully. The waitress shows back up then and sets down their drinks. "Wow. That was fast." Jace remarks as he looks up to her.

"I am good at my job." she replies with an easy smile. She then leans into his side of the booth just a little and says lowly, "But that isn't the only thing I am good at." and then winks at him again and turns to leave. By the time he looks back over to Clary, she had disappeared onto the bench of the booth and is doubled over with laughter. He watches her for a few seconds as she sits up and wipes away the tear that rolled out of one of her eyes because she was laughing so hard. "I believe if I wasn't here, she would drag you into the back and destroy your innocence." Clary finally gets out after taking a couple of breaths.

"I think you may be right. She is still smiling at me." he tells her and then nods to a couple a booths down from them behind Clary. She leans over to the edge and peeks out and sees the older woman blow a kiss at him which makes her start laughing all over again.

"Do you feel safe?" Clary says sarcastically. "Do you need me to protect you? I'll kick her ass if you want me to."

He laughs as his attention is pulled completely back to Clary. "Nah. If I play my cards right, I might be able to get something for free. Next time she comes over, I will show you how it's done."

"And what if you don't convince her to give you something for free?" she asks challengingly.

"Then I will show you some of the pictures I've taken. But if I do get something for free, you have to show me the first drawing that you did in the park and wouldn't let me see."

Clary narrows her eyes at him for a moment and then a wide smile spreads across her lips that slightly unsettles him. "That sounds like a deal." she tells him and then holds her hand up to flag down the waitress. She swings her hips as she walks over and asks, "Are you ready to order?"

"I am." she tells her brightly. "I would like a burger with everything on it and a fries and put his order on my ticket as well. We are celebrating because my friend here," she gestures towards Jace, "just came out of the closet to everyone. We were all so excited when he finally admitted it."

Jace is completely flabbergasted at her words. His mouth falls slightly open with surprise as she smiles evilly at him. The waitress cuts her eyes over to him and he can see the obvious disappointment on her face. "Well isn't that peachy." the waitress says dryly. "Good for you."

Jace looks across the table at her and narrows his eyes at the small red head. She is good. Really good. He can already feel the sting of defeat bruising his ego. "I'll have the same as my friend here." Jace says as he tries to smile flirtatiously at the waitress, but she has already begun to studiously ignore his stare. She scribbles down the order and turns to leave without looking at him again.

He lets his eyes look back over to the evil woman across from him and says, "That was cheating."

"You never set forth any rules. Don't be mad because I out witted you."

"Touche." he says as he reluctantly smiles back at her. He looks down at the table and picks up his straw and tears the paper off of the tip of it. He brings the torn side up to his mouth and wraps his lips around the straw and points it right at Clary. He huffs out a breath and the paper flies off in her direction and hits her right in the nose. She looks up to him in mock outrage and picks up her straw and tries to do the same. The moment the paper leaves the straw and sets sail towards him, he dodges out of the way earning a death glare from her.

"That was payback for playing dirty." he tells her and she smiles and seems to accept it as she sits up a little and rests her forearms on the table. When she shifts in her seat a little, he feels one of her feet touch his leg and he holds it there just so he can have some sort of contact with her. She isn't trying to play footsie with him or him her, they are just touching in the small area under the table. It is a lot more intimate that he thought something so seemingly innocent would be. He is super aware of every part of him that is touching whatever small part of her and it is surprisingly exhilarating. And the look on her face lets him know that she feels the same way. She is blushing ever so slightly and smiling warmly at him across the table.

"So Jace," she says with a serious tone, "when did you know you were gay?"

He rolls his eyes and picks up the straw paper and balls it up and then throws it at her as she laughs and it gets stuck in her hair next to her face. When it doesn't fall out after a few seconds, he reaches across the table and dives his fingers into her soft hair and pinches the paper in between two of his fingers. The mood suddenly drastically changes and then they are looking deeply into each other's eyes. She bites her bottom lip lightly and his eyes dart down to the movement. Without thinking about it, he starts to raise up and lean across the table to kiss her when the waitress shows back up and breaks the moment they were just having.

Clary looks down to her lap and Jace pulls his hand back to himself and smiles politely up at the waitress and mutters a thank you when she sets their food down on the table. When he looks back up to Clary, he sees the tiny smile on her face as her cheeks heat up and she grabs her napkin from atop the table. That is when he knows that if he doesn't get to kiss her soon, he will surely explode with frustration. She is going to either be the ruin of him or the rebirth of him. Which ever it is, he can't wait to find out.

* * *

 _I can't promise when the next chapter will be up because I am fixin to go on vacation for Thanksgiving. But I am going to try my best to get another chapter up before I leave but for now, I have to write another chapter for my other story, A Chance Meeting Between Enemies. Thanks for reading! Till next time!_


	4. Chapter 4

By the time that Jace and Clary pulled up outside of her apartment inside of a converted brownstone, it had been dark for an hour. "I live on the second floor." Clary says and looks up out of the window of his truck. He leans over as well and sees a brightly lit window casting light down onto the sidewalk in front of it. He is leaning over so far, that his face is now right in front of Clary. He suddenly feels her eyes on him and turns his head to look at her finding that their faces are only about two inches apart.

They lock eyes and her lips start to curve up slightly into a smile. His heart begins to pound in his chest as his hands start to get a little clammy. He realizes then that he is nervous. Jace Herondale never gets nervous when he wants to kiss a woman. Never. He is always brooding and confident and not once has he ever been nervous. The atmosphere begins to change quickly into a thick blanket of anticipation that settles heavily over them. His lips part slightly and when his eyes fall down to her lips, his nerves get the best of him and he abruptly sits up. "Can I walk you to your door?" he asks as he looks down at his hands.

When she remains silent after a few seconds, he looks back up to her and he thinks he sees a hint of disappointment on her face before she smiles warmly at him and says, "Of course." and unbuckles her seat belt. Silently cursing himself for not taking the perfect opportunity to kiss her, like he has wanted to do all day, he unbuckles his belt and opens his door. He tries to hurry over to open Clary's door for her but by the time he gets there, all he can do is offer his hand to her as she jumps down, which she takes.

Unwilling to let go of it once he's got it, he kicks his truck door shut behind him with his foot and then she is leading him up the few stairs to the entryway. Unfortunately when they get to the door, she lets go of his hand to dig in her bag. A few seconds later he hears the jingling of keys and she pulls out a set and pushes one into the lock. When the door opens, he follows her inside and looks over to his left and sees the stairs that lead up to the second floor.

Clary glances up to Jace and he looks down at her and she blushes lightly as she tucks a piece of her hair behind her ear. Neither one of them has said a word since the truck and as he follows her up the stairs, the silence turns into that thick blanket of anticipation again. It's like with every step they climb, the blanket gets heavier and heavier and Jace silently promises himself not to chicken out this time even though she makes him more nervous than he has ever been in his life.

They finally reach the landing on the second floor and he sees that there is a tiny hall with a door just before the end of it on the left. "That's my door." Clary says as she looks over her shoulder at Jace and he smiles at her. They reach her door and she turns around to face him. When her eyes meet his, he can see that she is wondering if he is going to try and kiss her. She licks her lips and smiles before she says, "I'm glad you decided to try and get my attention today. I had the best day with you. You surprised me, Jace."

"You surprised me." he replies while his voice is a little husky. "I feel like you've woken me up. Like I have been this walking robot and you reminded me that I'm human. You, Clary, were like a breath of the best and freshest air that I have ever breathed in. You made me feel alive. How can I thank you?"

Her eyes are shining up at him as she brings her hands up to rest lightly on his chest as she leans against the frame of the door. Jace takes a small step closer to her to where they are almost touching. She tucks her bottom lip under her top teeth and bites it for a second before letting it go. "You could show me how thankful you are." she suggests, her voice quiet.

One of his hands comes up and slides to the side of her neck and pushes its way to the base of her head while the tips of his fingers push into her hair. The other one goes to her hip and snakes around to the small of her back and pulls her body almost completely flush with his as her hands slide up further and onto his shoulders. He dips his head down as she tilts hers up and his eyes dart down to her lips as they fall slightly open in anticipation. He closes his eyes as she does and leans further into her. His lips lightly touch hers and he pauses, wanting to savor this moment and not rush through it. She sucks in a tiny surprised sounding breath and he can't wait any longer.

Just as he starts to lean in and put more pressure behind his lips and actually kiss her, the door right behind Clary swings open and Jace quickly steps back away from her in surprise. His hands pull back to himself and his surprised eyes look to the doorway where there is someone who looks like an older version of Clary. It has to be her mother.

Her eyes turn hard when they land on Jace and then she is jerking her head to her daughter. Jace looks back down to Clary to see her looking disappointed and slightly annoyed as she looks at her mother. "Perfect timing, Mom." Clary says dryly and turns slightly to face her.

"Where have you been? I have been worried sick." Her mother tells her as she turns her hard on eyes on her. "I tried to call but it just went straight to voice mail."

"Why?" Clary asks defensively. "I texted Simon and told him I had something pop up and I probably wouldn't be done till late."

"Speaking of..." her mother says as she reaches into an open pocket on the front of Clary's bag and grabs her phone. "Where did you find this?" she asks Clary.

"I found it in your dresser, turned off and under a stack of your clothes. If I didn't know any better, I would think you were trying to hide it from me." Clary's voice is tense and stern and Jace starts to feel slightly uncomfortable as the two women enter a stare down. "And anyway, I'm not a child anymore. I don't need to tell you where I am every second of the day."

Her mother's eyes narrow at her before she stands up a little straighter and says, "I have to call Simon and tell him that you are here." and then walks away from the door to the apartment, leaving it open.

Clary huffs out an exasperated breath and then looks back up to Jace looking a little embarrassed. "Sorry about that." Clary says dismissively. "She can be just a tad overprotective."

"I noticed." Jace mutters and then she lets out a small laugh.

"The fact that she left the door open is her way of telling me to come inside so..." Clary says as she folds her arms across her chest a little unsurely.

"Can I get your number?" Jace asks and she smiles at him.

"Of course." she tells him and he pulls out his phone and she takes it from him after he unlocks it. She enters her number in his phone with a smile and hands it back to him. Jace takes it from her and somehow it feels heavier and more important than it did just a moment ago like it holds treasure inside of it. Clary's number. "Why don't you come pick me up for lunch tomorrow." Clary says and he smiles widely at her as she continues. "I have a morning class and then a break and then another class at two."

"I would love to have lunch." Jace tells her and their eyes light up at each other. "Should I just come back here?" he asks.

"Yeah. I'll be here." she tells him and then looks down at her feet for a moment before looking back up to him. "I'd better get inside." she says after a moment and his lips purse slightly in disappointment before nodding in understanding. "I'll see you here at noon tomorrow?"

"Noon. I'll be here." he says with a huge smile as she turns and walks into the apartment. When she turns around to shut the door, her eyes lock with his as she slowly shuts the door until he can no longer see the bright green of her eyes and hears the door click shut.

When he is alone, his eyes fall closed and his lips pull themselves up into a blindingly huge grin as the feeling of winning the lottery fills him from head to toe. He opens his eyes and is still smiling as he looks back at the closed door wondering where exactly in there is her room. For some reason, he wants to see it. Your room is supposed to be a reflection of you and he can only imagine the works of art that she has done that surely fill the room to reflect who she is.

When he realizes that he has been standing there for a while, he turns and starts to walk towards the stairs, still with a ridiculous smile on his face. Just as he looks down at his feet to go down stairs and his foot hits the first step, he hears the door to her apartment swing open and his heart jumps into his throat as his smile gets impossibly wider. His eyes snap up and to the door, fully expecting to see Clary but instead, he sees her mother walking over to him with the same hard eyes that she looked at him with just moments ago. "Mrs. Fairchild." he says surprised.

"You know my last name." she says surprised. "Never mind that." she then says as he pulls his foot back up and turns to face her. "Listen," she says with a very stern voice as she levels her eyes at him threateningly, "you will never come back here. I don't ever want to see you anywhere near here again. Forget my daughter ever existed because to you, she never did. If you do come back here, I will call the police."

Jace is completely taken by surprise by her words. Never did he expect to hear that from her. Clary said her mother was overprotective but crazy... "Why?" he asks her defensively. "I really like Clary. We had an amazing time today."

"And that is the only 'time' you will ever have with her because in your mind after today, she doesn't exist anymore." she says to him as she squares her shoulders. "Do you understand me? I never want to see you here again. Ever. You will forget Clary and never try to contact her again. Am I making this clear enough for you?"

"Crystal." he says as his eyes narrow at her in response to her attack. "But I doubt Clary will feel the same way as you."

"My daughter will forget you ever existed by the time morning rolls around. Trust me." she says knowingly and Jace shakes his head in disbelief. "No, she won't." he tells her surely and she laughs a very dry and humorless short laugh. "You don't know my daughter like I do." she retorts and then turns around and starts to walk back to the door. Jace watches her and when she puts her hand on the doorknob, she pauses and looks back to him. "I meant what I said. Don't ever come back here." and then walks inside.

Jace hears the turn of a couple of locks before he turns and starts to angrily stomp down the stairs. 'What the fuck was that?' he thinks to himself. Who the hell does she think she is to try and dictate who is in her grown daughter's life? Clary can see who she wants and he is sure she wants to see him again. Just as much as he wants to see her. He reaches the bottom floor and that is when he smiles to himself wickedly. Clary put her number into his phone. Her mother may be a crazy bitch but she wasn't going to keep him from her. Not in her wildest dreams.

* * *

 **Jocelyn**

She shuts the door behind her and turns the locks before resting her forehead against the door in exasperation and relief. She has been so unbelievably worried since Simon texted her saying that she had texted him from her phone. Clary can't have a phone. It has the current date on it. That is why she hides it from her. Usually if Clary can't find her phone within the first ten minutes of looking, she just gives up and goes to the coffee shop after Jocelyn tells her that Simon had to cancel on the days that he has an early class at NYU. Today just had to be the day that Simon had class and Jocelyn had a doctor's appointment early in the morning. She left her a note and the comic that Simon had 'dropped off' for her to read as an apology for cancelling and just prayed that everything went all right. When Maia had called her and told her she was at the coffee shop, she breathed a sigh of relief and thought that she was in the clear for another 'normal' day for her daughter. Obviously, she was wrong.

It was hard enough through the winter months when they couldn't just pretend that it was still April tenth and it was still a year ago when Simon and her were supposed to have another normal day. She didn't want her to have another one of her break downs when they would have to tell her what had happened when she realized something was horribly wrong. Those days were the absolute worst. Everyday she had to see the utterly devastated look on her daughter's face when she realized that she would always be stuck on that horrible day for the rest of her life, doomed to live it over and over again, was the worst days of her life. She hated those days. They took so much out of Clary and of her and Simon. It was so much easier to just pretend that everything was still normal. That she wasn't going to be terminally stuck and frozen a month before her nineteenth birthday and forever reading the same comic over and over and never moving forward.

Jocelyn is pulled out of her thoughts when she hears Clary walk out of her room and into the living room at the end of the hall. She pushes off of the door which she is leaning heavily on and turns around to see her daughter walking towards her with a lovesick smile on her face. "Mom." Clary says with a sort of contained excitement. "Today was so amazing."

Jocelyn briefly thinks about yelling at her for making her worry so much but what good would it do? If just for today, she was a girl out with a boy apparently. So she decided to humor Clary and just go along with it. "How so?" she asks as she walks away from the front door and turns into the kitchen on the right.

"First off," Clary says excitedly as she follows her, "...did you happen to see him? He's frigging gorgeous!"

Yes, she did notice. But, it doesn't matter. "That guy that you were with? He was very handsome." she tells her with a soft smile on her face.

"Secondly, he's amazing. Just...amazing. We went all over the city and I sketched while he photographed everything. We even found the building that Luke let me sketch that day when I was like eleven." Clary says as she sits at the round table in the middle of the kitchen as Jocelyn starts to wipe down the counters and do the dishes. "This morning at Java Jones he was so cute, trying to get my attention. He didn't want to interrupt my reading so he could hit on me so he decided to try and get my attention. Of course I made him work for it, though." she says with a thoughtful chuckle as she remembers it and she hasn't stopped smiling since she started talking.

"His name is Jace and he is a real estate developer but that isn't what his real passion is." Clary says excitedly. "He has always wanted to be a photographer and travel around the world and..." Clary trails off and sighs heavily as she falls to lean on the back of the chair. "He is just...amazing."

"That's wonderful honey." she tells her daughter. "I am so glad you had a wonderful day."

"We are going to have lunch tomorrow." Clary tells her. "You have no idea how excited I am for it. There is something about him, Mom. I can feel it in my bones. He's different."

"Well then you had better get in bed." Jocelyn tells her. "You don't want to have bags under your eyes for tomorrow. It sounds like you had a long day and you need to rest."

"I'm going to text him first." she says and Jocelyn quickly turns to face her.

"I don't think that would be a good idea, Clary." she tells her anxiously. "You don't want to seem desperate or too eager. You might scare him away."

"You're probably right, mom. And anyway, I just realized I don't have his number. I just gave him mine so I can't text him." she admits and then hurries out of the kitchen with a little hop and an excited skip. It absolutely kills her to see her daughter so happy and excited about a boy and the potential of a relationship with him. She always wanted her daughter to fall in love and get married and have a family. Granted, she always thought that it would be with Simon but after his failed attempts at telling her since the accident how he feels about her, it has become clear that Clary has put him firmly in the friend zone.

He found the courage to tell her that he is in love with her a few times knowing that if she didn't reciprocate the feelings, she would forget the next day and everything would be back to normal. Simon has told her a total of four times now, hoping for a different response each time only to be turned down over and over. She feels bad for the poor love sick kid. Jocelyn has tried to get him to leave them and go live his own life and not worry about helping take care of Clary but he always shuns the idea and says he isn't going anywhere. She thinks that he thinks that maybe one day her answer will change about her loving him but she knows it won't. Her daughter has never talked about him in any other way than that of a brother type.

Jocelyn finishes cleaning the kitchen and remembers that she hasn't told Simon that Clary is back yet. She went inside to call him but eavesdropped on Clary instead. Not her proudest moment but she wanted to know who her daughter was with all day.

She picks up her phone and sends him a quick text saying that Clary is home and is fine and Simon replies with relief and she walks back to the hall where the bedrooms are. She can see that Clary's light is turned off and cracks open her door to peak in. Clary looks like she has just fallen asleep, her hair in a fan on her pillow, and she creeps in and reaches for her phone on her nightstand. She is going to have to be more careful with her hiding places so Clary doesn't get a hold of her phone again. God forbid if she saw what the date was and what year it was. The days when she found out were terrible.

She shut her door and turned to go to her bedroom when Clary's phone pinged loudly in the quiet of the hallway. She jumped lightly and looked down to see that she had received a text from an unknown number. Her lips pulled into a tight line realizing that she apparently didn't get her point across to the man after reading the first few words. It's Jace. The text reads, _"I had such an amazing time with you, Clary. Words can't express what a breath of fresh air you were to me. It's like you brought me back to life, if only for today. I can't wait to see you tomorrow. I might not be able to meet you at your place so just tell me where you want to eat and I will meet you there. And bring that incredibly beautiful smile of yours with you. I'm addicted to it after today."_

Jocelyn's heart gives a little tug at his words. He seems completely taken by her like she is by him. If her situation was different, then maybe she wouldn't have to be such a bitch to him and actually be happy for her daughter and get to know him. But it's not so she has no choice but to be a bitch. She starts to type a reply. _"I thought I told you to stay away from my daughter. You will stay away and never contact her again. And thanks for sending a text. I now know which number to block."_

She closes her eyes and forces herself to hit the send button and then blocks his number. 'It's for the best' she tells herself over and over again as she readies herself for bed. It has to be this way. There is no other option.

* * *

Jace's eyes widen when he sees the response he got from the text he sent Clary. Apparently her crazy mother took her phone from her. He quickly tries to send another text but it is automatically returned saying that his number has been blocked. "Fuck!" he says loudly as he gets out of his truck and heads toward his building. He will find a way to get to Clary. He isn't just going to forget about the most amazing day of his life with the most amazing girl he has ever met. He can't just let her go. He won't.


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry I disappeared there for a while! If you read my other story, you have already heard why. Because of some family health issues, my writing was put on hold. Everything is getting back to normal now and I am trying to get back to writing and updating like I always have soon. Bear with me! Thanks for being patient!**

* * *

Jace wakes up with a start. He throws his hand wildly over to his night stand and blindly feels around for his phone. When he finally finds it, he slides over the snooze button and falls back into bed. He barely got any sleep last night thinking about Clary. A warm smile pulls up his lips as she comes back to the forefront of his mind. Suddenly, he's not so tired anymore.

He flips the covers off of himself and kicks his feet out an onto the floor. His shirtless body rolls as he stretches while he looks over into a mirror. He gives himself an appreciative nod as he looks at his toned body and then heads over to his attached bathroom. He showers quickly and gets dressed, making sure his hair has the perfect 'I got out of bed this way' look and hurries out of his apartment. As he reaches his truck, he is surprised to see himself smiling when he catches his reflection in the window of his truck. Jace rarely smiles. He smirks all of the time but hardly ever smiles. But the moment the thought of Clary's mother crosses his mind, his smile falters.

He opens his truck door swiftly and pushes over the tool bag that is there to the other side of the truck. When the door closes, his smile returns full force. Her smell is still in the truck. Her sweet smelling strawberry shampoo fills his nose as he takes a deep breath in. When he lets it out, he has found his resolve again. Clary's mother may be a crazy and an incredibly overprotective woman, but he won't let that stop him from seeing her again. Nothing will. If he can't go back to her place for fear of her mother calling the police, then he will go where he met her yesterday. A place where he knows she goes often because of her familiarity with the barista there. Java Jones.

He cranks up his truck and speeds off towards Brooklyn. When he pulls up to the coffee shop that is situated between a Chinese place and a book store, he reaches up and turns his rear view mirror towards himself to make sure he looks presentable in case she is there. He is hoping and praying that she is there this morning like she was yesterday, even though she said she had classes today. When he is satisfied that he is presentable enough, he steps out of his truck and starts to walk to the shop. There is an unfamiliar feeling in the pit of his stomach that catches him by surprise. It feels like a mixture of nervousness and butterflies. It is certainly not a feeling that Jace had had before and it throws him off for a moment.

He pauses on the sidewalk as people pass around him and he takes a few breaths as he steadies his pulse that had begun to race. He was always cool, calm, and collected and never got feelings for a girl. Clary seemed to be changing that and the more he thought about it, the more he didn't seem to mind the way he thought he would have. All he wanted to do was see her beautiful smile again and that desire was what got his feet moving again; faster than they were before.

When he reached the door to the coffee shop, he swung it open and immediately scanned the room for her. At first, he didn't see her. Then a tall lanky boy with glasses leans back in his seat and he spots her.

Clary.

She still looks just as beautiful today as she did yesterday. Maybe even more beautiful. The boy next to her must be her best friend Simon that she talked so much about. Just then, the guy says something to her that makes her look up from the comic she is reading and look over to her friend and burst out laughing. Her eyes light up and her smile is blinding as she looks at the lanky boy.

Something in the pit of his stomach twists as he watches their exchange. He can't help but think that he should be the one sitting with her and making her laugh like that. Another unfamiliar feeling rises up in him as he looks over to them and he doesn't like the way it is making him feel. For some reason that he can't explain, he wants to pull that Simon boy away from her and take her and keep her to himself. Keep her away from the way Simon is looking at her. He can't see much of his face from where he is standing but he can certainly tell that her friend wishes there was something more between him and Clary.

That thought is what propels his feet to move forward and towards her. He catches a glimpse of the barista from yesterday as she looks wide eyed up at him. She almost looks shocked and worried at the same time but he doesn't care. His feet keep pulling him closer and closer to Clary. She still doesn't see him as he closes the last few feet and smiles widely at her. "Hey, Clary." he says warmly to her. "I was hoping I would find you here."

The other guy's head snaps up and his eyes immediately land on Jace and narrow as he looks him up and down. Clary looks up from the comic and furrows her brows in confusion for a moment. The look she is giving him is certainly not the look he was hoping to get from her. She looks thoroughly confused as she studies his face. "I'm sorry. Do I know you?" she asks with confusion.

Jace is completely taken back by her words. How could she not recognize him from yesterday? He didn't shave his head or gain thirty pounds overnight so her look of pure confusion actually stuns him. He can feel his heart give this tiny little lurch at her not recognizing him instantly. He was sure he would be able to easily pick her out of a crowd of thousands just by the back of her head after yesterday.

"Yeah." Jace says with a bit of hurt in his voice. "We spent the whole day together yesterday. We made plans for lunch today." he explains with shock. How could she forget that incredible day yesterday?

"I didn't go anywhere with you yesterday." she answers with a shake of her head. Her eyes harden and she leans a little closer into her friend. "I've never met you before."

"What are you talking..." Jace says but is quickly cut off by Simon.

"I think you should leave." Simon says icily to him. "Whatever you think happened, it obviously doesn't matter today."

"But this is crazy." Jace says as his voice raises a little with shock. "We had the most amazing day yesterday." He looks back to Clary's beautiful and confused green eyes. "It was the best day of my life. I took you home. Why are you acting like this? Like yesterday never happened?"

"Because it didn't, you weirdo." she answers with a stern voice.

Simon stands up as he pushes his glasses up further on his nose and levels his eyes with Jace's. "Let me say this again. I think it is time for you to leave." His eyes are hard and unwavering even though his body language shows that he is slightly scared of a more involved confrontation. Jace tears his eyes from Simon's and looks back down and sees the freaked out look on Clary's face and his heart lurches in his chest for the second time that day. Her utter denial of the day before hurts him more than he ever imagined something like that would. He is sure that she can see the hurt in his eyes by the look on her face. She almost looks sorry as she watches him.

"Come on." he hears a feminine voice say. "Time to go."

He looks to his side where the voice is coming from to see the dark haired barista from yesterday looking up at him. He sees her name tag and is reminded that he name is Maia. When he looks back to Clary, she is looking at him with worry and perhaps an apology in her eyes. He doesn't say a word as he turns around and starts to leave. He can't for the life of him understand why she would just completely dismiss him like that and pretend that yesterday never happened. When he reaches the door, he takes one last look back at her to see that he can no longer see her. Her friend is standing in the way and blocking him from seeing her and vice versa.

"Keep moving and I will explain." he hears the girl say. He jerks his head over to her in surprise at her words and furrows his brows in confusion. She rolls her eyes heavily and gives him a shove. "I said keep moving."

He hadn't realized he had stopped walking so he let her push him out of the door and turned on her almost immediately when the door behind them shut. "Explain what?" he asks her.

"Explain what just happened in there with Clary." Maia says as she crosses her arms across her chest in a slightly tired stance. "She's different."

"I know." he says with a huff. "That is why I came back. We had an unforgettable day together yesterday and now she is acting like it never happened."

"That is because according to her, it never did." Maia says with a knowing tone.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means that she doesn't remember anything from yesterday. At all. No matter what it was or how unforgettable it was." she says with a tired voice.

"I don't understand." Jace says growing a little annoyed at her cryptic words.

"Clary is not like other people anymore." Maia says as she makes eye contact with him. "She used to be, but she's not anymore. She was in a bad car accident almost a year ago and it changed her."

"Changed her how?" Jace demands.

"She can't remember anymore. Clary had a traumatic brain injury that caused her not to be able to convert any of her short term memory into long term memory when she goes to sleep at night. Which means, she doesn't remember yesterday, or you, at all." Maia looks up at him with sympathy in her eyes and he has to look away. He absolutely hates that look. He saw it enough from everyone when his mother died.

"She can't remember the day we had yesterday?" he asks her again to make sure he understood what she was saying correctly.

"Or any other day. She wakes up every day thinking that today's date it the day of her accident." Maia explains further. "She is stuck on that day; forever reading that comic. She thinks it is last year. Her mother and her friend Simon jump through hoops to keep the charade up that it really is that day. To make her think that nothing ever happened and that she is normal."

"But what about when winter came?" he asks. "You said that it happened a year ago."

"That was hard on them." she tells him. "She would wake up every morning and they would try to keep her in the dark about when it was. They would dress in shorts and close all of the curtains in the apartment so she wouldn't see the snow on the ground outside. It was hard on everyone. About half of the time she would find out what was going on and freak out."

"That's why her mother acted so crazy yesterday when I dropped her off at home." he says with understanding. "She was worried that she would find out when she was with me and all hell would break loose."

"Her mother is incredibly protective over her." Maia says with a knowing tone. "The only reason Clary remembers me is because I worked here for a year before her accident and her and Simon came here almost every day. When Simon has class, I watch her for the both of them."

"This is absolutely crazy." Jace mumbles mostly to himself. "She can't remember anything other than what has happened today. Yesterday..." Jace trailed off thinking about the amazing connection he shared with her yesterday. The way she would smile at him and the little things she told him about herself. The things that he admitted to her about himself. She had brought out the side of him that he had buried so deep inside three years ago when his mother died. The side that saw the beauty in the everyday world around him and wanted to capture it with his camera.

Oh, and her smile. She was so incredibly beautiful when she smiled. As the day progressed, her smile became warmer and warmer towards him. He could see the connection he felt reflected in her eyes the later it got in the day. How was he to ever have a relationship with her if she only ever knew him for one day? How was he going to be able to get her to kiss him and touch him with familiarity? The way he had dreamed she would last night. Like they had been together for years.

Jace looks down at the sidewalk for a moment as his brain kicks into overdrive with the problems and now non-existent possibilities that he didn't even know he wanted until this moment when he was told he would never have them with _her_. "That's messed up." he whispers to himself. "We had the most incredible day together yesterday."

Maia makes some sort of movement and Jace looks up to her face. She is looking at him with remorse and pity the way he hates as she reaches out and lightly touches his arm. "I am sure she felt the same way. But none of that matters now."

"It matters to me." Jace says with a hard and quiet voice.

Maia looks back to the coffee shop where a group of people just walked in and looks back to him. "I've got to get back to work." she tells him apologetically. "Sorry...whatever your name is." She then turns and hurries back into the coffee shop leaving Jace standing there still in utter shock. The one time he meets a girl that manages to break through his carefully constructed walls, she has a brain injury that doesn't allow her to remember him. "Of course she does." Jace says to himself as he turns and starts to walk back towards his truck.

Simon...

He watches as the blonde model looking guy is practically dragged out of the coffee shop by Maia and thanks his lucky stars that she didn't remember him. He isn't sure he could compete with a guy that looked like _that._

"What the hell was that about?" Clary says with confusion and Simon jerks his head back to look at her. She looks freaked out and worried and like she has forgotten something vital. Simon absolutely hates when she gets that look. It kills him to see her struggle like that. Like deep down she knows something is wrong with her but she can never figure out what it is.

"I have no idea." Simon lies smoothly. Jocelyn called him and told him that she had spent the day with some blonde man who she seemed to be smitten with but that she had taken care of it. Apparently, she was wrong.

"How did he know my name?" Clary asks looking over to Simon with even more confusion on her face. "He said we spent the day together yesterday...but I was at home all day with mom."

"I don't know." Simon lies again. "Maybe he heard me say your name and was trying to pick you up using the 'Haven't we met before' pick up strategy."

"That didn't seem like that was what he was doing." Clary says looking out of the door to the shop. Simon turns and sees the edge of Maia's back before the rest of her disappears behind the wall of the building where the window ends. He wonders what she is doing before saying, "Forget it. Let's finish reading this." He gestures to the comic on the table in front of them and smiles at her. "I want to know what happens when the bald guy finds out the girl took his powers." he says with excitement.

And just like that, Clary smiles brightly at him. What he wouldn't give to be able to lean over and kiss her right now. He thinks back to the few times he has tried to and cringes at the memories while looking away from her eyes. There was only that one day that she let him kiss her all day. He could tell she was uncomfortable but he was being selfish. She wouldn't remember it the next day. At the end of the day, she told him what she always tells him. That she looks at him like a brother and that she doesn't want to lose their friendship. Every time she says he is like her brother, it is like a knife is being stabbed into his chest.

Either way, that won't stop him from trying. She is the love of his life and he will get her to see that he is the love of hers. 'She just doesn't know it because of her stupid accident.' he tells himself over and over. 'If she hadn't had it, then we would surely be together by now. She would have realized that she was in love with me and we would be together.' But instead, she is stuck in the same spot in their relationship that she was a year ago when she still looked at him as a friend. 'One day' he promises himself one last time before throwing himself back into the comic and preparing himself to act shocked at the ending for the millionth time.


	6. Chapter 6

**I know this chapter is shorter than my usual ones but I wanted to give y'all something to say sorry for my sporadic updates. Thanks for being so patient.**

* * *

Jace climbs into his truck in a daze and shuts the door behind himself. He still can't wrap his mind around what Maia told him. The one time he finds someone he can see himself with long term, and she will never be able to remember him. Before he knows what he is doing, he reaches for his camera that he keeps with him at all times. The camera that he took pictures with yesterday when he was with Clary.

He turns it on and clicks on the pictures from yesterday. The first picture that pops up is the one he was looking for. It's the first picture on his memory card and the first picture he took yesterday. His fingers touch the small screen on the back of the camera that shows the picture of Clary that he took without her knowledge. The light from the tree they were under is shining on her bright red hair making it look like fire. Her green eyes are alight with excitement as she looks around for something or someone to sketch. She is just so breath takingly beautiful that it almost hurts to look at her.

There is a small tightening in his chest when he thinks about never seeing her again. If he didn't know any better, he would say it was anxiety. But...no. It was something more than that. It was...

His phone rings loudly in the small space of his truck startling him. He jumps and almost loses his grip on his camera and fumbles it a little before regaining his grip on it. He pulls his phone out of his pocket and answers it and the fifth ring. "Hello."

"Jace! Where are you?" It's his project manager Jordan.

"I'm on my way." Jace replies as he tucks his camera back into it's case and pulls out his keys. The rumble of the engine of his truck turning over is a welcome sound that helps him ignore the tightening in his chest that he was so focused on just a moment ago.

Jace has been a walking zombie all day. He doesn't remember half of the things that Jordan has told him about the three row homes that they are remodeling. There was apparently a problem with the plumbing permits that required his signature and was why Jordan called him this morning. Everything since then has been a blur of table saws and lumber and blue prints that he didn't really see because her face has plastered itself to the back of his eyelids. She is all he has been able to see all day.

"Hey, man." Jordan says to him gaining his attention. "Where have you been all day? I've never seen you like this before. Like your body is here but your mind isn't. You're always so focused."

Jace sighs heavily and takes a bite of the simple turkey sandwich he made himself this morning. He had given the one he made for Clary to Jordan for him to eat for lunch. He had planned to take her on a picnic and...it doesn't matter anymore. "Yeah. My mind is somewhere else today." he tells Jordan.

"Does it have anything to do with why you missed work yesterday?" Jordan asks with an arch of his brow. "I know you weren't sick. You never get sick."

Jace contemplates telling him about Clary for a moment. He has considered Jordan a close friend for a long time now... "Yeah. It does." Jace replies before he talks himself out of telling him. If he has ever needed another opinion, it's now.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Jordan asks with a serious undertone to his voice. Jace looks up at his friend as they sit in the window sill of one of the bay windows of the row homes. The house has cleared out of the workers as they take their lunch break leaving just the two of them. "I met someone yesterday morning." he starts out saying. "She's so incredibly beautiful. And when she finally spoke to me, she had me completely captivated. I've never felt anything like that before."

A large smile breaks out on Jordans' face. "That's great, man!" he says cheerily as he claps his friend on the back. "Why do you look so glum then?"

"Because it doesn't matter." Jace states seriously. "We spent the whole day together yesterday. It was probably the best day of my life and...it doesn't even matter."

"I don't understand." Jordan says as the smile he had on his face starts to fade. "What do you mean 'it doesn't matter'?"

"I mean, she doesn't remember any of it. We made plans for today and when I saw her this morning, she didn't remember me or anything we did or said yesterday."

"How is that possible?" Jordan asks as his brows furrow and create a shadow over his large brown eyes. "Are you sure she just wasn't trying to give you the 'shove off' because she didn't like you?"

"No. There's no way that she would have ever done that." Jace replies emphatically. "The connection that we felt yesterday...there's no way that anyone would ever want to deny that feeling."

"Then...I really am lost now." Jordan says.

"She has a brain injury." Jace tells him somberly as he drops his head and looks at the floor. "Her friend took pity on me today and told me that she had gotten into an accident a year ago. She had a bad injury to her head that affected her memory. She can't make any new memories. Apparently her brain hits the 'reset' button every night when she goes to bed and she forgets everything she did that day. She thinks that she is normal and that it is last year. That it is the day of her accident. She lives that same day over and over again."

"Dude..." Jordan says seriously. "That sounds like some soap opera shit that my granny watches."

"Tell me about it." he replies somberly and takes another bite of his sandwich. "I can't stop thinking about her. I barely slept last night because I was too keyed up about seeing her today."

Jordan takes another bite of his sandwich and gulps down most of his water bottle as his face scrunches up in thought. "It really seems like she got under your skin yesterday. I have never heard you talk about _anyone_ like that."

"Yeah." Jace says in acknowledgement and stands up as he tosses the rest of his sandwich in the trash and downs his water. "But like I said, none of that matters." He turns away from his friend and starts to head towards the door outside when he hears Jordan's heavy footsteps come running up behind him. He turns to face him and is surprised when he sees a very Jordan-like mischievous smirk on his face.

"I don't exactly agree with you." Jordan says with a lilt to his voice. Jace furrows his brows in confusion as he continues. "What if you were to go and talk to her again? See if yesterday was just a fluke or if there really was something there."

"And what would I do if there was?" Jace asks very dryly. "Convince her to go out with me every day? Pretend that I have never met her before?"

"Sort of." Jordan says. "Just...go hang out with her. You could have more days like you had yesterday with her. Everyday could be a new adventure for you."

Jace brings his hand up and rubs the back of his neck roughly. His eyes drop to the floor and an unsure looks covers his features. "I don't know, Jordan. That sounds a little...I don't know. Messed up maybe?"

"Dude." Jordan says emphatically. "Just listen to your heart for once. It'll tell you what to do."

'Dammit. Jordan has gone all sappy now.' Jace thinks to himself. For someone as built and tatted and intimidating as he is, he is really in touch with his feelings and isn't ashamed of it. "I'll think about it." is all Jace says as he turns and walks out of the gutted row home.

* * *

Clary wakes up with a start when her alarm blares beside her on her bedside table. She slaps the snooze button and groans as she rubs her eyes before trying to open them. And then she remembers.

Clary bolts upright in her bed with a glowing smile on her face. "The new Manga comic came out today." she says to herself in the quiet of her room. She reaches down and tosses the covers off of her legs and jumps out of bed. She reaches for her phone where it sits on top of her dresser to charge but finds that it is missing. Clary looks behind it on the floor and doesn't see it there. After a quick search of her room, she walks out into the hall and runs into her mother.

"Morning Mom." she tells her when she steps back from her. "Have you seen my phone? I could have sworn that I put it on the charger last night."

"I haven't seen it." Jocelyn replies.

"Crap." Clary mutters and runs an anxious hand through her hair.

"Did you put it in your bag?" Jocelyn asks.

"I already checked there." she tells her. "I really need to get in the shower. Simon should be here soon."

"Why don't you get in the shower and I will look for your phone." her mother offers.

"Alright. Thanks mom." Clary says as she turns around and grabs her towel out of her room and hurries to the bathroom down the hall.

Thirty minutes later, Clary emerges from her room fully dressed and with her hair in soft waves from towel drying it and letting the air do the rest. "Did you find my phone?" Clary shouts aimlessly into the kitchen.

"I couldn't find it sweetie." Jocelyn answers her as she steps out of the kitchen. "And while you were in the shower, Simon stopped by. He said that his sister needed some help with her computer. He said that she has a big paper due and she can't get it her computer to boot up so she can turn it in."

Clary looks up from where she was bent over the couch while sticking her hands in between the cushions in search of her phone. "What?!" she almost shouts. "He has the Manga..."

"He left you the comic to read without him." Jocelyn says holding up the said book in her hands. "He told me to tell you to go ahead and read it. That he will probably be a while."

"Ugh." Clary huffs out. "This sucks." she says as she stomps over to her mother and grabs it from her. "Who am I going to talk to about what happens if Simon isn't there?"

"I can go with you and you can tell me." Jocelyn offers and Clary somewhat cringes at the thought.

"Thanks, but no thanks, Mom." she tells her. "This is like the first one of the tenth series. You would be so lost and I would have to explain so much to you."

"Are you sure?" her mom asks sweetly as she walks closer to her and tucks some hair behind her ear. "It's been so long since we've had just a mom and Clary day."

"What are you talking about? We had one just last week." Clary says as she throws her bag over her shoulder. "And besides, don't you have that meeting with that potential buyer today?"

Jocelyn's eyes dull for a moment before she nods her head. "I do. But I could reschedule..."

"Don't be silly, Mom. I'm just going to go to Java Jones by myself and read it. Besides, you haven't sold a painting in a while. You don't need to pass up this opportunity."

"Gee. Thanks for the reminder." Jocelyns says dryly to her.

Clary slides on her shoes by the door and looks back to her mom that she passed by to get there. "You know what I meant." she says to her. "You know you're a great artist."

"Sometimes." Jocelyn replies and Clary disappears as she leaves and shuts the door behind her in a hurry with the comic clutched tightly to her chest.

Clary is halfway through the comic for the second time as she tucks her feet close to her body and leans back into the old green and worn couch she is sitting on. She mindlessly reaches out for her coffee on the table in front of her where she left it but comes up short after feeling around for a second. Feeling frustrated that she has to stop reading, she lowers the book to look for her coffee and her eyes connect with the most beautiful pair of golden eyes she has ever seen.

Her breath catches a little in her throat as her brain registers what the rest of him looks like. He has hair the color of yellow honey and beautifully slightly tanned skin without one tiny imperfection on it. His lips are perfectly full and when they pull up and into a smile, she internally swoons.

"I think you are looking for this." he says and reaches out and slides her mug across the table to her from where he was passing by. His voice is deep and rich and unbelievably sexy.

"Um...thanks." she practically croaks out and then clears her throat. 'What the hell is wrong with you?' she asks herself. 'Get it together.'

"Don't mention it." he says back and then smiles at her again. "Is anyone sitting here?" he adds on and points to the spot next to her on the couch.

"Ummm...no. No one is sitting there." she answers.

"Good." he says and sits down next to her. "Even if you had said yes, I still would have sat down."

"And why is that?" she asks him as she sets down the Manga and looks at him inquisitively.

"Because this is my favorite spot in the whole coffee shop." he replies. For some reason Clary can't explain, she is a little let down by his answer. A part of her was hoping that he had sat there because he was interested in her.

But of course he wasn't. She was just plain old Clary. She turns her head back to her coffee and takes a sip before setting it back down and picking up the comic again.

"What are you reading?" the gorgeous man asks her.

"It's a comic." she replies expecting to get the 'Seriously? You're an adult.' look from him. Instead, she sees nothing but an openness to his face and curiosity in his eyes. "Is that the new Manga?" he asks.

Clary can't help the look of utter surprise that covers her face in that moment. "You read comics?" she asks sounding half surprised and half incredulous.

"No. But my little brother does." he answers with a gleam in his eyes. There is even a small smile on his lips as he talks. "He will read them with me when I go home on the weekends. He just got into Manga last week and hasn't stopped reading them. He's called me every night to tell me about them."

The way his eyes light up when he talks about his little brother makes Clary sit up and take a little more notice of the man next to her. It would seem that he isn't just a pretty face. He has a little brother that he obviously adores. "That's cute." she remarks as she angles her body toward him a little and lets one of her feet hit the floor and the other slip up and folded onto the couch between them. "How old is he?"

"He's almost thirteen." he answers her.

"So, do you come here often?" Clary asks without thinking. The moment the words are out of her mouth, the flirtatious smile that was on her lips drops and she mentally face palms herself in the forehead. "Sorry. I just realized what I said and it sounded like some cheesy pick up line. It's just that you said that that was your favorite spot..."

"That's okay." he answers with a slight chuckle. "The line almost worked on me."

She looks back up to him; not expecting that answer. "Almost?" she asks with a smile playing around the edges of her lips.

"Maybe if you added a 'Do you have a map? I'm getting lost in your eyes.' or a 'Is your daddy a baker? Because you've got some nice buns', I might have fallen for it."

A wide smile breaks out across her face just before she bursts out laughing. "Those...were horrendous!" she gets out between rolls of laughter.

"I'm Jace." he says with a breath taking smile as he leans closer to her and offers his hand in introduction.

"I'm Clary." she says back to him and places her hand in his.

* * *

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